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Hybrid .4 05
Author's Note #1: The events that occur in this story are based off Human .4. The story was written by Mike A. Lancaster, and this author is not affiliated with Human .4 in any way. Author's note #2 : This is a continuation of Hybrid .4 04. It will only make sense if you read the link above. Author's Note #3: This author owns none of the art and images shown. ---- That ''caught me off guard. "No-no, that's not ''possible." Okay, let's be real here-have you ever once compared humans to phones, cameras, or TVs? Yeah, me neither. We'' created ''technology, therefore we can't be technology! We have personalities, flaws, we're imperfect, and we accept that! The machines we've made, we designed them to do jobs that took too long for us to handle, to communicate with one another across far distances, and to keep us entertained for those times we're bored! We have these devices, to make our lives easier! How could we take the place of our tools....to someone else, when science stated there were no signs of alien life whatsoever? Unless. Unless. UNLESS. Unless science was wrong. Unless there are really other creatures in this universe, that live too far away for us to find them. My head was fogged with logic and evidence, and I was feeling very wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey-spacey-wacey-queasy-weasy. How? Where? Who? What? When? Most important, WHY? "I thought you said ''you'd believe whatever we gave you." Heidi retorted, snapping me out of my daze. This was too much to comprehend, and to ''actually believe. "I was expecting this to be a sick joke, not... humans substituting computers. There must be something wrong." "You're darn right,'' something’s wrong." Eric sulked, his eyes darting dramatically around the room. "But guess what? It's been wrong for a 'long, long time now. And we can do ab-so-lute-ly flipping ''nothing'' to make things better." "And ‘The Upgrade’, it’s responsible for why you've become wanted criminals?” I asked, putting Upgrade into quotation marks. Lilly piped in. "Exactly, ''but'' we don't have our faces plastered on posters. This is all because of the most ''recent'' human upgrade, and one I accidentally missed because I was in the worst place at the worst time." "You' missed it too." Kyle nodded in my direction. "So did 'I'. And so did Heidi, and Eric, and over 'two-thousand' other people." ''He couldn't be serious. ''"How did 'I''' miss it? No-no, first of all....why are there upgrades for humans? There's nothing about us worth upgrading!" "That may be your opinion, but there are people who will say otherwise." Heidi's words sent chills down my back, especially in the spot I'd been poked in by Kira's strings. ---- This next bit, I struggle to understand. I know it's the truth, I just have trouble connecting the dots, and linking x'' to ''y. It's something, if I ever heard before this, I'd never believe. But now, it's the only thing that could explain how I got from first to second base. An Upgrade, probably the first in nearly half a century, struck Earth, and infected all people, asleep or awake. None of my new friends had a really clear concept of what the Upgrade actually looked like, but in my head, it was this signal, being transmitted to the brains of all homo sapiens around the world in only a millisecond. That signal, created over a billion monsters faster than the speed of light and sound combined. They were called the 1.0, and they can do things Steve Jobs could never dream up. You want to know how? With those darn strings, that's how. As it turns out, they're actually called filaments, and the 1.0 use them for practically everything. According to Kyle, 1.0 use their filaments to do things like charge phones, and communicate among themselves. But some of us never got filaments, because some of us were too far away or too blurred out to be reached. Now, when I say that, I'm not talking distance, I'm talking telepathically. Lilly and Kyle were in a trance, Heidi was in a coma, and Eric was underwater. Their mind functioning had shut down, just for the merest of moments, but during that time, that Upgrade hit. Guess what happens now? If you didn't pick up the signal, you're out of luck. To everyone else, you're gone. More accurately, you were never there. To the 1.0, you never existed. Ever. Oh, but it doesn't end there! No sir! Those of us that never received the signal aren't allowed to go around messing with new technology! First off, it won't work, since it also was upgraded. But if you tried, they'd come after you. Not quite the 1.0, more so their...anti-virus software program. And in the game they play, you can't win. They'll find you, regardless of where you are, and they'll delete you. Permanently. "...Call 'em ves-ti-giv-or-es." Heidi said, pronouncing each syllable with as much diction as she could. "They leave us alone mostly, as long as we leave them alone." Sounds like a blast. ''"Wait, wait-wait-wait. You said something about having to be in a certain state to not get Upgraded, but, I was 'asleep!" "...And?" Lilly waited for me to add on. "And I don't have any of those...things." I waved my hand for them to see. Kyle gave me an eye roll. "We're not ''blind'', we can clearly tell." "But...then why did someone ''with'' them see me? I....I thought that-" "That's' what I don't understand." Eric scratched his neck. "They 'shouldn't' have. I've tried screaming, shouting, waving in front of them; 'nothing' can get their attention. So I don't see how 'you' are any different from the rest of us!" Lilly gave her friend a glare. "Rude'' much?!" "Just saying!" He retaliated. "You know what?!" Kyle stood up, stopping an argument from breaking out. "It's getting dark. How about we all just call it a night?" The exact same thing Ethan said to me right before he left. Before all this started. ''"But, what are we supposed to 'sleep' on? The 'floor?" "Yes. Got a problem with that?" Heidi got to her feet, along with Eric and Lilly. In unison, the group left the bathroom. "...You can't sleep on the ''floor''! That's ''disgusting''!" I protested, also getting up. "And doesn't it ''hurt''?" Eric threw me a pillow and a blanket. "That's why, we have ''these''. Sleep tight, ''noob''. Hope you enjoy your first night in the ''real'' world." "But-" I tried to say something else, but he shut the door, and locked it from the outside. Shoot. There was no way out of here, except for one way: the ''toilet''. On any normal day, I'd ''love'' to try flushing myself or Ethan down the hole, but today, I was ''not'' up for that. ---- They're coming. I run, as fast as I possibly can. I don't know my way around these parts, but I know the safest place has got to be far away from them. Suddenly, I screech to a halt. There are more coming from in front of me, and to both my left and right. '' ''They've got me cornered. There's nowhere else I can go. "This is your last chance, Trevor." Ethan has become one of them, to his pleasure. "What's it gonna be?" The ground shakes. Something else is on its way, something much, much worse. "Don't make me have to choose, please!" I beg my best friend. Surely he understands! Maddie, to my ultimate horror, is also one of them. "This is not our choice, Trevor. This is what they want. You either join us, or they kill you. There is no third option." '' ''"They will not give you anything in return for following their orders." I argue, trying to talk sense into my girlfriend. "Do none of you imbeciles understand that? You do this, and they'll keep giving you demands with nothing worth paying the price for!" "Enough stalling! Give us your answer!" Ethan roars. I aim the dirtiest stare at him. "Kill me and get it over with. But there will be nothing given to you in return for this dastardly act." "So be it." Maddie sends a loud whistle, signaling the monster to come. "You would've been given a second chance for your mistakes, but I guess there are some that don't want to forget after all." A loud gust of air surrounds me like a tornado, blinding me and sucking my lungs of oxygen. To describe what it felt like in that moment is impossible, because I wasn't thinking like normal. I was so focused on breathing, that the rest of me didn't matter. '' ---- ''As the world goes darker, someone appears in my vision. "Trevor." I'm back in my bedroom, surrounded by my parents and my brother Rick. At first I think I've finally woken up, but then I see my Dad with his unbelievably thick beard, Mom with her crazily short hair, and Rick with his stuffed turtle. ''By 2014, Dad had shaved that beard, Mom had grown that short hair out, and Rick had shoved Timmy the Turtle into the same closet he kept his underwear in. So then, was this a memory? '"Mom? Dad?"'' "You don't understand!" Another voice calls out, which I recognize as my own. I'm sitting on my bed, with that darn emo hair I insisted to never get rid of. "Those are the only things I have! Without them, I'm nothing!" '' ''My father, from when I was younger, is holding my old laptop and phone. I can remember clearly, he refused to shave for months, which explains the black-gray beard. "Well, then, you better find something else! I'm not having a child that is only good at working with screens! I'm not!" The younger me is insulted. "What's your problem?! Why aren't you yelling at Rick? All he ever does is sit in front of the TV!" "What he's trying to say, Trevor, is that you should know when to take a break from your games and do things like eat, and sleep." My mom said more gently. "Hunter, your son knows how to take care of himself. Give him his stuff back." My Dad glared at his wife. "Grace, this does not involve you! This conversation is between me and my son!" "Our son." Grace corrects him sternly. '' ''I stop, knowing what will happen next. "No, no, don't do it, don't do it..." "Will you both just leave me alone?!" My twelve-year-old counterpart screams, grabbing ahold of my computer. "That's it! That's the final straw!" My Dad pounds my computer to the floor, shattering all of the files I'd stored on there. "You're going outside young man, and you're not coming back in, until you've experienced time in the real world!" I cringe, as the scene flashes before my eyes. "Dad, don't say it, please don't say it-" But it is too late. My father does not hear my present-day self. Instead, he screams at the me of June 2008. I remember the words he says so clearly, because they are what shattered our relationship for forever. "You are such a failure!" "What is wrong with you?!" "You're worthless!" "You can't do anything right!" "I wish you had never been born!" I try hopelessly to talk to him. "DAD!" "Trevor." "Dad?" "Trevor!" "DAD!" "TREVOR!" ---- Someone was standing above me. "Trevor, ''wake up''." My eyes opened slowly. I couldn't tell who it was, but as soon as I heard it, more questions and memories flooded in. Is it Ethan and Maddie? '' ''Has this whole experience just been a dream after all? Have I fallen asleep another hundred years? Are the alien programmers coming to get me? But it was none of the above. It was ''actually'' just a very crabby Lilly Dartington, who I'd woken up in the middle of night without knowing. The circles under her eyes reminded me of the ones my mom always had first thing in the morning. "You talk in your sleep, you know that right?" "No I ''don't''!" What was she talking about? "Uh, ''yes'' you do." She insisted. "I could hear you from right outside the room. You going on about begging someone not to do ''it'', and you called someone an ''imbecile''. And normally I'd have ignored it, because I'm used to sleeping next to ''Heidi'', but you were ''so'' loud. I just ''had'' to get you to shut up." "Oh. Sorry about that, I'm still trying to adjust to the ''real world''. I'm ''new'' to living like a this, and talking in my sleep ''just so happens'' to be a side effect." I got off the floor, quoting one of Lilly's companions out of bitterness and exhaust. "Hey, listen. Eric wasn't being ''serious'' when he said that." She looked offended. "I ''know'' him, and he's not the kind of person to make fun of the people less familiar with being a fugitive. He assumed that you've been doing this...forever." My stomach wasn't agreeing with my head because of the dream I'd just had, and I doubted Lilly would understand. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Can I go get some fresh air? I'll make it quick." "You're gonna try running away, aren't you?" "No." Had I made it too obvious? "I'd ''never''." Lilly wasn't buying it. "Look, it's useless to abandon ship. You might not have noticed, but you have ''nothing''. No extra clothes, no ''food'' or ''drink'' to keep you alive, and nowhere to put what you may possibly find on your journey. More importantly you'll be on your own. That might not ''sound'' so bad, but what would you have done if we hadn't shown up to save you from that robot?" "''I don't know." ''I would have ran, hidden, and died. They saved my life. "See?" She said. "This isn't ''all'' about running away from the aliens and the technology the 1.0 make, this is also about our ''survival''. We still have to ''function''. We still need ''food'', and shelter. And we have a better chance of getting what we all need when we ''work together''." Chills went up my arm. She ''knew'' she was right, and I couldn't argue against that. "I'm ''sorry'', I won't try to escape again. I just wanted some time to ''myself''." "Let me come ''with'' you, then." Lilly crossed her arms. "Fine." I spat at her. "Go ahead." And so, we exited the abandoned gas station as ''quietly'' as we could, to make sure the others didn't wake up. ''Together'''''. Category:Stories Category:H.4 Parts Category:The Upgrade Parts